May 16, 2017

Mara Rosenberg, M.D. student in the Class of 2019, was recently selected by the American Society of Hematology as one of two students nationwide to receive the 2017-2018 ASH Physician-Scientist Career Development Award.

Beginning July 1, Rosenberg will spend the year studying next generation sequencing-based minimal residual disease detection assays for patients with leukemia. Max Brodsky, of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Penn., was also selected for this award. Brodsky will explore mechanisms of ruxolitinib resistance in JAK2/ASXL1 double-mutant myeloproliferative neoplasms. Both students will receive a total award amount of $42,000, which will help cover their supplies, insurance, educational expenses, salary and meeting attendance, allowing them to spend more than 80 percent of their time conducting laboratory, translational or clinical research.

Rosenberg has established herself as an aspiring clinician-scientist, having devoted significant time to research as an undergraduate and contributing thus far to more than 20 scientific publications. In the summer of 2010, she was a biomedical informatics intern, working with Ruikang Wang, Ph.D., affiliate professor of biomedical engineering, OHSU School of Medicine. In 2011-12, Rosenberg worked with James Tanyi, Ph.D., associate professor of radiation medicine, OHSU School of Medicine, as a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Most recently, Rosenberg spent three years as an associate computational biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard under Gad Getz, Ph.D.

"Mentorship and training of the next generation of hematologists is of utmost importance to ASH," said ASH President Kenneth C. Anderson, M.D., of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "Mara and Max are two talented medical students who show dedication and enthusiasm for hematology research, and ASH is thrilled to foster their continued growth and guide them toward successful research careers."

The American Society of Hematology is the world's largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. This physician-scientist career development award program allows students attending accredited medical schools in the United States or Canada to gain experience in hematology research under the mentorship of an ASH member.